Harriet Sergeant

Is there a way to live without economic growth? 

David Pilling's Bending Adversity looks at Japan's lost decade and ageing population — the country's resilience may hold a key for the West

Is there a way to live without economic growth? 
Japanese soldiers salute after filling a channel with coffins during a mass burial of tsunami victims Photo: AFP/Getty
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Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival

David Pilling

Allen Lane, pp. 385, £

Financial Times Asia

Bending Adversity,

a ghostly dust rising from buildings that were collapsing in the water’s path. The eerie white powder floated ahead of the wave like some terrible omen of death.

A cardboard home outside a theatre in Osaka, Japan Photo: AFP/Getty

gambaranai

Gambarimasu

Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £16. Tel: 08430 600033